Thomas Edison's Impact On The Recording Industry

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Before a world of telephones, television, and the delivery of household power, A man Time Magazine recognizes as one of “The 20 most influential Americans of all time”, Thomas Edison was Born February 11, 1847 in Milan, Ohio. To his Samuel Edison an exiled political activaist from Canada and Nancy Edison an accomplished school teacher. Little did they know that the modern day world we live in is a living legacy of Thomas Edison’s Inventions, Persistence, and Business Ethics. During Edison’s life he is credited with 1,093 patents consisting of mechanisms and processes including the stock ticker, a mimeograph, a microphone, a mechanical vote recorder and a battery for an electric car just to name a few. Edison’s research and development laid the foundation for three industries that are alive and well in today’s society including record labels, motion pictures, and the power delivery system.
Edison’s impact on the music recording industry was sparked by his advancements in the telephone communication industry and his invention of the quadruplex telegraph system for Western Union. The quadruplex system was composed of a single …show more content…

This sparked the idea that an audible message could be recorded in the opposite way. By speaking into something, recording it and having the ability to playing an audible message back. In order to accomplish this he used the vibrations from vocal sound waves to create a machine that had two diaphragms and needle units that recorded the audible message. One diaphragm was used for recording, the other was used for playback. The way it would work was by speaking into a mouthpiece, the vibrations from your voice would vibrate a needle. This would embed the message into a metal cylinder with tin foil wrapped around it. Which could be played back multiple times before causing damage to the tin foil and losing the recorded